The Association of Musical Marxists (AMM) was a political and cultural organisation based in London, active between 2010 and 2015. It was founded by former members of the Socialist Workers Party (UK) (SWP), including writer Ben Watson and Andy Wilson, with the aim of uniting revolutionary politics with avant-garde and improvised music.
The AMM challenged the professionalisation of both politics and the arts, advocating instead for creative spontaneity, radical history, and collective pleasure. Its events were communal and combined political discussion, poetry readings, musical improvisation, and drinking, seeking to dissolve boundaries between politics and culture. The AMM manifesto emphasised a commitment to revolutionary art and a rejection of what they perceived as the commodification of culture. They advocated for embracing great music as a pattern for reshaping humanity and as a key to the dialectic. [1]
By combining improvised music with revolutionary politics, the AMM aimed to challenge careerism and affirm the audience's right to an informal good time. Or as one journalist put it, "the AMM believes in both revolutionary art and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and Unkant Books are an attempt to fuse these two explosive concepts." [2] Ultimately, however, political disagreements led to the AMM's demise.
Many people spoke, read or performed at AMM meetings including, Ben Watson ("Out To Lunch"), Andy Wilson, Keith Fisher, Sean Bonney, Oscillatorial Binnage, [3] Helene le Bohec, Nina Power, Ben "Chewing Gum Man" Wilson, Dave Black, Esther Leslie, Robert Dellar, Alastair Kemp, Alternative TV.
The AMM was closely tied to Unkant Publishing, a radical imprint launched by its members. [4] From 2011 to 2015, Unkant published 14 titles ranging from political theory and history to poetry and musicology. After the dissolution of the AMM and Unkant's closure in 2015, many of its authors found themselves "out of print and homeless." [5]
The Association sponsored a colourful libertarian politics establishing links with like minds (Psychedelic Bolsheviks in Sheffield, Assoziation Daemmerung in Berlin, the Occupy Movement, London students protesting tuition fees and the Rab-Rab Collective in Helsinki). [6] [4] Unkant published history such as Helen Macfarlane's journalism, about the Chartists in 1839, Raymond Challinor's book on World War Two, and Sheila Lahr's wartime memoirs, musicology, psychiatry and politics. It also published poetry and facilitated performances by Sean Bonney and Ken Fox.
One of Unkant's most significant contributions was the publication of the book, "1839: The Chartist Insurrection" by David Black and Chris Ford (2012), a Marxist reinterpretation of the revolutionary fervour surrounding the Chartist movement in Britain. While overlooked by mainstream reviewers, the book drew praise from across radical and fringe media. Ben Watson described it as "a revolutionary handbook," and John McDonnell MP, in his foreword, commended its detailed research and its challenge to dominant Labour histories. [7] Dan La Botz, writing in New Politics, called it "fast-paced" and praised its "masterful command of the sources." [8] Historian, Stephen Roberts found it politically committed and compelling. [9] James Heartfield in Spiked Online admired its unapologetic focus on working-class agency and Adam Buick in the Socialist Standard acknowledged its vivid storytelling while offering a critical view of its revolutionary emphasis.
Following the disbanding of the AMM, Ben Watson continued the group's musical ethos with drummer Peter Baxter calling the collective the AMM All-Stars. As a free improvisation ensemble it featured regulars such as Dave Black, Paul Shearsmith, Esther Leslie, and guest appearances with Jair-Rohm Parker Wells, Iain Sinclair, Guy Evans, Sam Amant, John Plant and artist and sculpture Eleanor Crook.
AMM All-Stars have performed at international festivals like Zappanale. At Zappanale's 30th anniversary, under the musical direction of Graham Davis (Mint Douche and Gabba Zappa Hey!), they performed a recomposition of Frank Zappa's album Lumpy Gravy. [10] Journalist, Julian Cowley noted that recorded version the results "succeeds notably well" by oozing "a warm, almost homely feel". [11]
Criticism of the AMM All-Stars remains fluid and wide-ranging. Chris Searle, writing in the Morning Star about their album In "This Scrumple No Taste is Fixed" wondered whether Karl Marx would have found their music "in kicking a stone against railings, splashing his boots in an open sewer or drumming on brickwork." [12] In contrast, Massimo Ricci in Touching Extremes hears in their sound "hundreds of cues dictated by sheer memory, by recent or distant experiences, by the continuous urge to switch roles and mix instantaneous views." Richard Thomas in The Wire described one Cafe Oto gig as an "anaemic chicken coup squabble". [13]
Collaborations with AMM All-Stars and their aesthetic philosophy were profiled in publications like The Wire, Herri, and Rab-Rab Journal. [14] [15] [16] They have cultivated international collaborations with improvising collectives in South Africa and Australia. In 2023, they worked with the Africa Open Institute on xenochronic sound experiments—layering memory, history, and improvisation. [17] Earlier projects included cross-hemispheric recordings with Australian group "Music With My Insane Friend", [18] expanding AMM's vision across borders.
The group remains committed to the AMM's founding spirit: the subversion of form, the joy of collectivity, and the merging of music and Marxism. They broadcast live and regular on shows such as Late Lunch with Out to Lunch on Resonance FM and The OTL Show on Soho Radio. [19] [20]
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